May 2022 Archives

Hi, everyone!

On this day in 2017, America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave launched on Bethesda.net and NexusMods and was received better than I could have dreamt of. At the time of writing, it has reached 952,640 downloads across all platforms! I’m forever grateful for the support.

As many of you know, I have been working on additional content for the mod ever since. New quests, new locations, new equipment and new characters. I had labelled this the “2.0” update.

However, I came to a realization. Not only was I adding a lot of new content – I was making significant changes to existing content in the mod, too. I was re-writing dialogue, I was overhauling locations, progression, and more.

With so much changing, I made a decision – the “2.0” update for America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave is cancelled.

Instead, I’d like to present America Rising 2.

Why America Rising 2?

At its core, there’s a fundamental difference between how the stories in America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, and America Rising 2 work. Those of you that have played it will know that America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave‘s story is a side adventure to Fallout 4. You can play it at any time, and it ultimately does not make a difference to the game world of Fallout 4, aside from a few new locations and encounters.

However, America Rising 2‘s story approach is vastly different. It’s split into a 3 act structure, and follows along with the Fallout 4 main quest. You’ll help them with their goals, and they’ll help you – to progress in the Enclave’s questline, you’ll need to progress in Fallout 4’s questline. And yes – the Enclave will help you get into the Institute, too.

Because this is so different, I wanted to make sure players that don’t like this shift are still able to play the original America Rising.

What are the story implications? Are all the quests and characters different?

All the main quests from America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave are in America Rising 2 – some of them have been changed extensively, some are exactly the same. There’s also a huge amount of new quests. America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave had 7 quests make up its story. America Rising 2 currently has 18 and counting.

All the characters are still here – General Ward’s still the star of the show, as is Doctor Kane. Some have had rank adjustments; such as Captain Peterson and Lieutenant Fitzpatrick – but everyone will make a comeback.

On top of that, we have new characters to support the extended story. Colonel Whitehill and Chief Engineer Myers, as well as an unannounced new companion.

Will I be able to destroy the Enclave?

Yes, yes you will. They are the bad guys, after all! What good’s a bad guy if you can’t get rid of ’em? If you make them hostile (be it by completing the game with another faction, disagreeing a little too much with the leadership, or simply shooting them in the face) you’ll be locked out of the Enclave, and they’ll fire at you on sight.

You’ll need the help of your allies to eliminate them once and for all, but I won’t go into too much detail about that yet.

Will I be able to run America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave alongside America Rising 2?

Please don’t do that. I beg you. Untold misery will befall your game.

Seriously though – no. I’m most likely going to implement a warning message if America Rising 2 detects you’ve also installed America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave. The two mods are completely different structure-wise, but they use a lot of the same locations. Not only are they narratively incompatible, they will be from a technical standpoint, too.

What does this mean for America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave?

There’ll be no more new content coming to it. After I release America Rising 2, I will probably go back and patch some of the larger and more common bugs people run into in America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, but otherwise you should consider it as finished.

Is there a release date yet?

I know you’ve all been waiting a very long time. Implementing what is essentially a fifth AAA-quality main-story path as a mostly one-man team while working a full time job is, perhaps, a little too ambitious – but that sums up my modding career, doesn’t it?

I don’t have a concrete release date for you yet, but I am feeling confident about Q4 2022. I really can’t wait for you to get your hands on this – I’m so proud of how this is shaping up.

How much of America Rising 2 is done?

Right now, all but one location is implemented. Site Gamma is being re-implemented with an (I believe) improved flow. A few locations need some minor clutter passes, but for all intents and purposes about 95% of the level design is completed.

Most characters are implemented, most main dialogue is implemented – of the Enclave main quest, 18 of the 19 quests are implemented.

Ambient dialogue needs to be re-implemented but is mostly already written. The “destroy the Enclave” questline is concepted but not yet implemented.

No voice acting has been done yet – I’m leaving that to the very end, when all dialogue is locked in and final. Our incredible voice cast does what they do for free, and I don’t want to keep pestering them with new lines over time. All America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave voice actors will be offered the chance to reprise their roles, and I hope all of them accept.

To give a rough percentage, I’d say maybe 75% of America Rising 2 is completed. Maybe that doesn’t seem right after 5 years of development – but a big bout of burnout circa 2019-2020 as well as having to start fresh at one point certainly slowed things down. Thankfully that’s all in the past!